MUNSTER ARE PREPARING to welcome some serious firepower back to their ranks for Saturday’s URC interpro derby meeting with Connacht, and skills coach Mossy Lawler believes the province’s returning internationals can be a transformative presence heading into the season run-in.

As expected, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and Peter O’Mahony all returned to training this week following their involvement in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, but in a further boost, Craig Casey (knee) Jean Kleyn (thigh), Jack O’Donoghue (ankle) Thaakir Abrahams (shoulder) and Oli Jager (foot) are all available for selection and could come back into the side for Saturday’s game at MacHale Park.

“To get players back like that and have them hopefully available by the end of the week turns ourselves into a different team, but it also raises the levels of training and you know yourself, competition is everything,” Lawler said.

“When competition is stepped up, we become a far better team.”

With five rounds of regular season games left Munster sit sixth in the URC table – just three points ahead of Connacht, who lie outside the playoff places in 13th.

“Top eight is everything. We’ve got a massive five games left and if we’re being realistic we need to win all five, so we will be taking each day as it comes, and our focus has just been on Connacht on Saturday.”

Lawler previously spent eight years with Connacht working as attack and skills coach and with the Connacht Academy, so has a good sense of what Saturday’s sell-out in Castlebar will mean to his former team.

Munster skills coach Mossy Lawlor. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO

“You always try to dig into the emotional or passionate side of things, Connacht is a real community club with massive buy-in from their supporters from all over the province. So to get an opportunity to move the game away from the Sportsground, which at the moment is only holding 3/4,000, to go to a stadium to play against Munster where you’re going to get the bones of 26,000, I think is a no-brainer. The occasion is just going to be huge for the province as a whole.

“I don’t think we’d do this job if we weren’t excited about getting up for a Saturday, the ability for us to expand our game and grow our game worldwide and have that opportunity to play in the likes of Croke Park and again here at MacHale Park. It’s massively exciting for both provinces this weekend to play for such a huge passionate crowd, it’s only great for the game and growing the game.”

And while Connacht have very much been the focus, there has also been one eye on the future with Clayton McMillan spending the week with Munster ahead of joining as the province’s new head coach in the summer. McMillan will spend time getting to know the Munster players and staff before jetting home at the weekend – with the New Zealander unable to stay and take in Saturday’s match in Mayo.

“Yeah, Clayton arrived in Sunday night,” Lawler said.

“He’s here for a week, just meet and greet, see what the club is all about, see what we’re all about. At the moment it’s all been small talk. When things die down a little bit we’ll get our own personal time with him to have conversations about what he sees or what we believe will be our next step.

“So massive effort from the man in relation to coming up from New Zealand during Super Rugby season and I suppose it just shows his intent and where he wants to go and what he wants to do with the place.

“As I said it’s just been kind of small talk, really. Our focus this week, particularly on a Monday, Tuesday, has been all Connacht, so our conversations (with McMillan) will more or less will happen later on in the evening and tomorrow when we have that little bit of downtime.”